Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I appreciate what the Minister has said. I understand the importance of making sure the money is spent correctly and appropriately. Nobody has any difficulty with that. I also appreciate what he said about the value of the associations and the value of an association that can act as an umbrella body. My suggestion is that where we provide multi-annual funding for various organisations in other areas of the budget, is it not open to us to make that multi-annual funding available to a particular association so that they might have some certainty for the programmes they offer, recognising the value of men's sheds to particular communities and what they do for people throughout this country, in every constituency represented in this House? Is there any path to provide that certainty, whether through multi-annual funding or through the association? Is there no pathway to give them certainty on what might be available to run the programmes they run?

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